ohmidog!

Not that there are any acceptable ones, but we’ve been hearing some pretty flimsy excuses for abusing dogs in recent weeks.

First there was the Chicago man who allegedly stabbed a neighbor’s dog to death because it tore his $3.78 shirt.

Then came the Salt Lake City woman who’s accused of spraying Raid down her dog’s throat, killing it, to keep her ex-husband from taking the dog with him when he left. (We’d say it’s probably a good thing he left.)

Then, this week in North Carolina, a New Bern man told WCTI News he threw a dog off a drawbridge and into the Trent River “because it got in the way.”

Samuel Drew, 36, appeared before a judge Monday. He is charged with animal cruelty and faces up to 10 years in prison after witnesses said they saw him throw a hound mix off the Alfred A. Cunningham drawbridge in downtown New Bern just before noon Saturday, NewsChannel 12 reported.

In a courthouse hallway, he was asked why. You can see his response here – one so casual it’s clear he considers dogs disposable, a view that seems to be at the root of all three cases.

Drew also admitted to police what he’d done, officers say. ”He admitted to us that he had, in fact, thrown the dog over the bridge into the river,” said Officer Doug Evans. Drew told police he was annoyed that the hound, along with a pit bull mix, were following him, and that he was going to throw the pit bull off the bridge too, but couldn’t get a hold of him, Evans said.

A pair of boaters, Patsy and Jesse Tripp, saw the dog thrown into the water.Patty Tripp jumped in the water to rescue him and swam with him to shore. Another boater managed to pull the dog from the water, but was bitten in the process.

Both the hound mix and the pit bull were taken to Craven-Pamlico Animal Services Center. Trinity Smith, an animal control supervisor told WNCT that the two dogs were traveling together and it is unknown whether the dogs have an owner. If an owner does not step forward, they will be put up for adoption, Smith said.

WSVN-TV –

A small dog who fell off Miami’s Brickell Avenue drawbridge as it was being opened was found alive and well the next day.

The mixed breed dog, wearing a pink sweater when she was thought to have plunged into the water, was found in a restricted area below the bridge. Bridge operators say the dog apparently landed on a cement slab.

David Bernstein stopped at the Brickell Avenue drawbridge Tuesday night and saw the dog going across it as it began opening.

He said he tried calling the dog back, and, along with other motorists, who were yelling and honking, tried to alert the bridge operator.

But the bridge continued rising and the dog continued across it.

The dog slid and appeared to have fallen into the Miami River.

Bernstein spent the next hour searching for the dog, without success. On Wednesday, he returned and talked to a drawbridge operator who checked the service areas under the bridge.

“And she said, the dog’s in there, five stories down,” Bernstein told the Miami Herald, “and I was just, I was blown away.”

The dog was taken to a veterinarian, who cleaned her up and pronounced her healthy. No owners have yet come forward.